Festival-goers looking to attend Electric Zoo Festival this year are being forced to view an anti-drug PSA in order get access to their tickets.
As part of concerted efforts to step up security measures following last year’s tragic edition, in which two people died of drug related overdoses, organisers of the New York EDM festival are making a raft of changes to this year’s event, including the introduction of sniffer dogs, more undercover cops, and police conducting background checks on all on-site vendors and employees.
But perhaps the strangest new security measure is that Electric Zoo 2014 attendees are required to watch an online video warning about the dangerous affects of Molly (MDMA and ecstasy) before obtaining their wristbands for the three-day event, as SPIN reports.
The anti-drug PSA, called The Molly, depicts a young man experiencing a bad trip at a dance music show; sweating profusely while hitting on a girl before spouting ridiculous lines to her like, “I want to wrap [your hair] around my face like golden waterfalls.”
The Molly, directed by Dexter co-creator James Manos Jr. and written and produced with his 19-year-old daughter Ellie Manos, is set to screen at the gates of the Electric Zoo festival – taking place over the America Labor Day weekend at the end of the month – and is part of an overall anti-drug campaign called ‘Come To Life‘, encouraging attendees to ditch illicit substances in favour of enjoying the moment, drug-free.
“Our message to concertgoers is simple: The Electric Zoo experience is exceptional and worth being present for,” Electric Zoo founders Laura De Palma and Mike Bindra explained in an official statement.
“Molly can cause you to not only miss the moment, alienate your friends and have an overall adverse and unpleasant experience … but can also make you sick and can even be fatal. Fans will experience how great it is to ‘Come To Life’ at one of our concerts from lights, sounds and crowds.”
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The anti-drug campaign and PSA arrives just one week after the DEA arrested an ecstasy dealer who sold lethal pills to 23-year-old Jeffrey Russ, one of the fatalities at last year’s Electric Zoo.
According to The New York Times, 23-year-old Patrick Morgan is facing up to 20 years in jail after being charged with narcotics distribution and narcotics conspiracy for selling over US$1,000 worth of MDMA pills to festival-goers.
Australian promoter Richie McNeill, the Co-CEO of Stereosonic owners SFX Totem, was in attendance at Electric Zoo 2013 and told a panel at Sydney’s Electronic Music Conference last year that “the US is 10 years behind in safety standards.” McNeill, along with a collective of festival promoters from Big Day Out and Future Music, agreed that American companies had a lot to learn, particularly in launching brands in the Australian music market.
